


Hollowed out

by Bambitae



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Character Death, M/M, Minor Violence, baekhan if u want to squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:30:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8102449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bambitae/pseuds/Bambitae
Summary: Some habits are just hard to break





	

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for my bro after I read a few Zombie!AU fics (and cried in the process). Anyway, enjoy!

He lights up the cigarette placed in between his lips. He breathes in, letting the familiar taste of tar spread into his lungs. He can't say that addiction or enjoyment has influenced him to smoke anymore, now it's out of bad habit. 

A bad habit of reminiscing the past.

\--

"Why do you smoke? Don't you know it's bad for you?" Minseok asks, eyes fixated on the way Luhan crushes the cigarette with the sole of his shoe.

Luhan rolls his eyes, as if he hasn't heard of that before.

"Addiction," He reminds Minseok as reaches for another out of the almost empty pack. Minseok frowns as he swats the cigarette, "You should really stop. What are you tryin' to do? Kill yourself?"

Luhan simply laughs it off and leans forward to rest his lips against Minseok's, feeling content when he feels the smile forming on the latter's face. His arms wrap around Minseok's body as he pulls him closer, opening his mouth to let the latter in.

He doesn't answer the question.

\--

Luhan drags his baseball bat, dripping with blood, across the street. He trudges on with the bag of supplies in his other hand, he feels fatigue getting to him. 

The city is abnormally quiet as always, aside from the occasional screams of terror, he almost misses the sounds of traffic and people chattering away. 

It's been 3 years since the epidemic broke out, a zombie apocalypse enthusiast's dream. So by now he should be used to the silence, but the certain voice he craves forces him to miss it.

\--

"Do you think this'll ever end?"  
Minseok asks, his head resting on Luhan's shoulder. Their fingers are interlocked as a thin blanket is draped over both of them. 

Luhan opens his mouth to answer but nothing comes out, he isn't sure if he has an answer. He resorts to empty words he knows for sure hold some sort of comfort.

"I hope for the best."

He holds his breath, waiting for a response. They sit there in silence for a minute or two, their breathing synchronized. He almost jumps when he feels Minseok's grip on his hand squeeze tighter before nodding.

"I hope so too."

\--

He hears another scream as he nears the apartment he reluctantly calls home. The scream catches his attention as he can see in the distance a young man cornered by 2 undead. 

Usually he'd rush inside the building and let the victim be eaten away for there was a risk he'd get hurt. But something inside him urged him to get closer, a familiar voice rang inside his thoughts. He shakes it off though, he'd rather not risk it. But after having that final conclusion his feet are still planted to the ground. 

The young man has a machete, Luhan figured the other hasn't fought for his life ever as he watches him use the machete to poke at the zombies and barely keep them away. He's about to finally move before something else happens.

They make eye contact.

And at that moment luhan knows he has to help him. 

\--

"I can't believe you did that!" Minseok says, almost shouting. Luhan slaps a hand over his mouth, a scowl plastered over his face.  
"What do you think you're doing?! Do you want to attract more zombies?" He warns Minseok in a hushed fashion.

He watches as Minseok forcefully removes Luhan's hands from his mouth. Luhan feels a lump form in his throat as he notices the tears rolling down the latter's cheeks.

"We could have saved him!" Minseok says, his voice merely a harsh whisper. Luhan shakes his head in disagreement, "There were too many zombies!" He's taken back when Minseok glares at him angrily as he takes a step forward. 

Luhan feels the breath being punched out of his lungs, he's petrified.

"It wouldn't have hurt to try," Minseok's features soften, a sad frown remains on his face, "I'm tired of watching people die in front of me while I don't dare to move a goddamn muscle."

Luhan looks away from Minseok's face, he'd be at a lost of words if he hadn't stopped staring into his eyes. The eyes be knew we're once bright and cheery, now clouded with things not even Luhan could read. He lets out a shaky breath, "Minseok, im just trying to survive. I want to make it out of this alive with you."

"Then, you're no better than the others."

Luhan whips his head back to Minseok, brows furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean?"  
Minseok sighs, "You're willing to throw away all good morals just for survival, just for me. Luhan, I love you so much, so much that it hurts. This isn't the Luhan I fell in love with."

Luhan reaches to grab onto Minseok's hand and holds it, most likely out of habit, "What do you mean? I don't understand, I- Everything I've done was for you and my future. I haven't changed."  
Minseok shakes his head to disagree, he wraps his fingers around luhan's hands, "Then prove it to me."

\--

Luhan runs over to the zombies and swings his bat, the raw sound of the blunt weapon against flesh rings in his ears. He doesn't stop until he's satisfied. 

"Are you okay?" He finally asks, breath ragged from the fight. The young man looks like he's in a daze and it takes a bit before he snaps out of it and nods. The young man seems to be flustered, "Yeah, thanks..."

Luhan slings the baseball bat over his shoulders, "Now how earth did you manage to survive with skills like that?" He blurts it out more harsh than he intended to, he thinks the young man is tensed because of it. Luhan makes sure his expression has softened, "Er...Sorry, didn't mean to say it like that." 

The young man shrugs, less visibly tense, "Nah it's okay, I guess if I were you I'd wonder too. I just recently got lost and I guess you can say I've been lucky my whole life not to run into any zombies up until this moment."

The young man fidgets nervously, "I- Uhm...My name's Baekhyun, yours?  
Luhan notes that the way Baekhyun's lips hesitantly curl upwards in a smile that's kind of cute, reminds him a little about someone else.

"The name's Luhan," he responds with a genuine smile, "The sun's about to set and hanging out at night time is a bad idea. Wanna crash at my place? As long as you don't kill me in my sleep then we're good."

Luhan feels something untangle in his chest, which for a year had grown more hollow, and Baekhyun smile grows wider and something in the latter's eyes sparkle. It's been a while since Luhan has ever seen anyone so happy.

 

\--

A rapid flow of curse words slip out of his mouth, his hold on the gun is at the brink of slipping. He feels the beads of sweat roll down his cheeks, or are those tears? He's too numb to know for sure.

"Fuck minseok- I, fuck, I can't do this. Please I cant do this I'm so, I'm so sorry," he's turned into a whimpering mess. 

Minseok is crying too, but unlike Luhan he isn't a sobbing mess, that's a first. His lips are curved into a tight, yet accepting smile, as if he had anticipated this. He wants to kiss Luhan but he fears he might pass the virus to him.

"Baby, listen to me, look at me,"  
Minseok whispers as his hands reach out to hold Luhan's shaking ones gripped onto the gun. Luhan doesn't say anything, he's shaking his head violently however, to what he's in denial about - he can't find an explicit reason.

Minseok drags the gun so it's directly pointed to his forehead, a shot that would kill him instantly.  
"I love you so much, to the moon and back, never forget that," Minseok's voice is growing weaker, his strength and will power slowly draining. He doesn't say goodbye, he can't say goodbye and he's not ready to say goodbye to Luhan. 

But things don't always work the way you want them too.

Luhan's heart stutters, his eyes advert away from Minseok's face. His gaze lands on the bite mark on Minseok's wrist and it serves as a reminder for the situation he's in. Bitten by a zombie while trying to protect Luhan. Luhan goes back and stares at Minseok's eyes, more readable than it had ever been in a while.

It's bleeding with desperation, love and grief. It could swallow him hole, could kill him, it could rip him to shreds and make him lose his sanity.

But he doesn't look away.

His lip trembles as he leans forward and presses a tender kiss onto Minseok's temple. He's putting all the emotion he can muster up. All the love they've spent on each other for years and to think this is the last time they'll see each other.

Luhan doesn't think it's a waste though.

"I love you, baby," he feels his sobs come out, "I love you so much." He tries his hardest to smile, the last smile Minseok will see whilst alive.

He pulls the trigger.

\--

Luhan's trying not to notice the way baekhyun is frowning at him, he feels the other's eyes staring at his back. Luhan lets out a defeated sigh, "Something wrong?" He turns his attention to baekhyun who has a thin blanket draped over his skinny frame.

"Uhm...I have a question," Baekhyun says, he looks unsure. Luhan nods as he chucks his cigarette on the ground before crushing it with the sole of his shoe, he reaches over to grab the last one from the packet. Baekhyun takes that as a 'go ahead' and clears his throat before asking, "Uhm...Is it okay if you stop smoking? I-Uh...Kind of am very uncomfortable because of it. But like, it's okay, you don't have to." The last sentence has a bit of fear mixed into it. 

Luhan is still baffled by the amount of innocence baekhyun still has in him, maybe he's really lucky. Although, if this were someone else he'd cuss them out for interrupting his moment of peace and continue smoking away. But something tugs at his heart and tells him to do otherwise, it's a foreign feeling, its something more than platonic intimacy but less than love.

"Sure thing, kid."

Baekhyun huffs at that, he sits up straight to retort, "Im not a kid! I'm 22 and that makes me an adult!"  
Luhan finds a laugh escape his lips and it almost surprises him, "Well you're still a kid in my books."  
Baekhyun lets out a sound of mock-hurt before laughing along.

The comfortable silence returns once more and Luhan is sure Baekhyun is asleep before he hears.

"Why did you save me?"

Luhan's attention from out the window shifts again to baekhyun. "What do you mean?" He raises a brow, although a part of him might already know the answer.  
"I mean, any usual person would ignore me and leave me for dead. It only makes sense, right?" Baekhyun responds. Luhan thinks about it, but stops once he remembers the reason. He truthfully doesn't want to remember anything else past that.

"Well, I guess you could say I'm doing someone a favour." Luhan replies, It sounds almost bitter. Then again, Minseok is quite the touchy subject he'd rather avoid. 

"Oh," he hears Baekhyun mumble, he picks up the hint of disappointment in the other's voice.  
"It's not just that though. I saved you because I wanted to, okay?" He re-assures baekhyun.  
"Who was that person? Er-You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Baekhyun hesitantly asks, he isn't quite sure how much damage Luhan has been through.  
Luhan doesn't blame him though.

"Someone Special, he's not around anymore though."

Baekhyun nods in acknowledgement before he turns his body so he's facing the ceiling. He looks like he wants to say something else, but is conflicted on what exactly should be said. He soon settles with a simple 'thanks for the nice talk' and 'goodnight'. Luhan is fine with that though, he doesn't want apologies or pity. 

He wishes baekhyun goodnight and finds the other to fall asleep instantly. 

Luhan takes a look at his pack of cigarettes, he contemplates. With a gruff he gets up from his sitting position and grabs them before throwing them out. 

He wants to at least break one bad habit.


End file.
